On Friday, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law the state’s comprehensive new gun control laws. The new laws, the stated purpose of which is to “save lives,” ban some “assault weapons” (whatever the heck gun grabbers think those imaginary weapons are), limits magazine capacity to ten rounds, and requires mandatory fingerprinting for gun purchase.

For Beretta, the Governor’s signature was the sign it needed that now is the time to move on. The move isn’t just about the symbolism of these ineffectual gun control statutes. It also came about because the legislation would make illegal the company’s ARX 100, which is Beretta’s newly issued civilian version of the ARX-160, a tactical rifle used in Italy.

The magazine size limit also puts Beretta in a legal bind. For several of the guns in its product line, Beretta would no longer be able to stock appropriate, standard capacity magazines. While this wouldn’t necessarily force Beretta to close, it would complicate Beretta’s corporate life to the point of “why bother?”.

While the move will inconvenience Beretta, it’s Maryland that will take the real hit, since Beretta has paid Maryland $31 million in taxes over the years – and that’s not even counting the 400 jobs that will be lost because of the move. Moreover, Beretta had actually been planning to expand its plant in Maryland, which would have created more jobs and paid more taxes. Now, though, as Jeffrey Reh, Beretta’s general counsel asked, “Why expand in a place where the people who built the gun couldn’t buy it?”

Beretta hasn’t yet announced where its move will take it. Certainly there are are several Second Amendment friendly states that have been wooing hard those arms manufacturers being driven out of blue states. Indeed, Texas has made headlines for its open invitations.

Beretta, a corporation operating under the constitutional protection of the Second Amendment, brought lots money into and created lots jobs in Maryland. Maryland responded by making large parts of Beretta’s business illegal or prohibitively inconvenient. Showing the principled good sense that all of the major gun manufacturers have shown lately, Beretta is taking its plan and its jobs and its money and leaving town.